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29 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
Life begins on the far side of despair.
-- Sarte

posted by Lorenzo 7:11 PM

27 December 2003

 

Europeans Verbally Attack American Tourists
Today, a friend who is visiting Vienna sent the following account to me in an email:

Soon after arriving I was walking with my sister enjoying a pleasant conversation when a young Austrian overheard our American accents, walked alongside and with daggers in his eyes said, "Go back to your creepy country." We did not respond so as not to provoke him and he walked on looking pleased that he had been able to attack us.

This makes me think that perhaps I should reconsider my essay of two years ago titled "The Difference Between America and Americans". In it I postulated that our friends overseas understood that it was the Cheney-Bush junta, and not the American people, who were responsible for the mess we're in. Sadly, some of our friends (quite understandably I might add) have lost patience with the American people and have come to identify us as one-and-the-same with the terrorists who have seized control of this doomed nation.
Another friend, who is blogging A Backpack and a Keyboard, tells of a recent encounter in China that had a completely different tone. Here is the view from China (at least from one tiny corner):

Jim was quickly involved in a political discussion about "President Small Bush", whom this policeman admired probably for the same reason so many Chinese like Hitler. They like strong, authoritarian types. I said nothing, let Jim handle his own little mess.

Isn't it ironic that the people in the United States of America have been led to believe that they are "exporting democracy" to other lands, when the truth is that the rest of the people on this planet recognize the USA for exactly what it is, a massive fascist business enterprise.

posted by Lorenzo 5:06 PM

26 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
A democracy has no defense against terrorism! A war on terrorism is a contradiction in terms! You can only have a peace conference on terrorism!
-- Fraser Clark, the UP!

posted by Lorenzo 4:05 PM

24 December 2003

 

Alex Grey at Burning Man 2003
In case you missed Burning Man this year, one of the activities we were a part of was the Palenque Norte theme camp. As you know, Burning Man has a gift economy, no money is exchanged, instead people give one another gifts. The gift that the Palenque Norte family of campers and speakers gave was the gift of new ideas that came from a wonderful array of guest speakers.

Gradually, we have been posting MP3 recordings of these talks. And today we are pleased to announce that the talk given by Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey is available for your listening pleasure. The title of their presentation is Art Love Family and Psychedelics. I hope you will have time to listen to this interesting presentation.

posted by Lorenzo 3:46 PM

22 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
Our Greatest Blessings come to us by way of madness.
-- Plato, Phaedrus

posted by Lorenzo 12:22 PM

21 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
Injustice and oppression can only be maintained by arbitrary, tyrannical, and criminal methods of government.
-- Maud Gonne

posted by Lorenzo 11:33 AM

19 December 2003

 

Thought for the Day
It is not required that we understand what is happening. It only matters that we do our part.
-- Terence McKenna

posted by Lorenzo 9:36 AM

18 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
I sometimes worry that we are no more than a random accident in an indifferent universe, soon to die and be forgotten. ... After all, how much do you even know about your own great grandparents?

posted by Lorenzo 10:19 AM

17 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
Information is non-material reality.
-- Jake Bowman

posted by Lorenzo 4:18 PM

15 December 2003

 

Threat Posed by New Computerized Voting Machines
[PLEASE CLICK THE ABOVE LINK to send a fax to your Representative urging him or her to support voting machines with a paper trail.]

A Message from Martin Sheen
As a member of TrueMajority I am concerned about the threat posed by new computerized voting machines. We start with a principle so obvious it seems strange even to write it: For a democracy to work, the people must believe that balloting is conducted fairly and votes are counted accurately. Americans feel justifiable pride that our nation has created a system to ensure this, including provisions for recounts.

New computerized voting machines register votes on a memory chip and then digitally transmit the results via telephone modem to election headquarters. We can only hope that neither glitches nor tampering will change or erase any of our votes. We all know that computers sometimes crash and lose data. Power cords get pulled out of the wall. And what better trophy for a hacker--or over zealous campaign worker--than to skew the outcome of the actual election?

There is a simple solution to these problems. The California Secretary of State has ordered that these new computerized voting machines print out a paper copy of your vote for your approval before the vote is registered. These printouts would then be saved in case the machines malfunction or there is any question as to whether or not they have been tampered with. Without them we would just have to trust the companies that make the machines--companies like Diebold whose CEO, Walden W. O'Dell, recently wrote in a fundraising letter for the Republicans, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year."

To send a fax to your Representative urging him or her to support voting machines with a paper trail across the country fill out the form that is available through the above link.

posted by Lorenzo 8:10 PM

14 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
-- Thomas Pynchon

posted by Lorenzo 4:52 PM

13 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
Beware of being too rational. In the country of the insane, the integrated man doesn't become king. He gets lynched.
-- Aldous Huxley, Island

posted by Lorenzo 6:49 PM

12 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
In a war of ideas it is people who get killed.
-- Stanislaw J. Lec

posted by Lorenzo 10:52 PM

09 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
-- Elbert Hubbard

posted by Lorenzo 10:25 AM

08 December 2003

 

Something to think about
What if everything we do, every thought we hold, every emotion we latch onto actually has Cosmic Significance? If that were true, would you be living your life any differently?

posted by Lorenzo 10:13 AM

06 December 2003

 

Don't be distracted when the Bush-terrorists focus on Saddam's atrocities
What the Cheney-Bush junta is trying to do in constantly telling us what a horrible person Saddam was (with his mass graves and torture chambers) is to divert our attention away from the fact that Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell are among the most vile mass murderers of all times and have certainly (if you count their deeds since the 1991 war) murdered at least as many innocent people as Saddam has.

Not even counting the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by US sanctions of Iraq, the Medical Education Trust in London estimated that more than 200,000 Iraqi men, women and children had died in the "surgical" assault in 1991 and its immediate aftermath. To that number, add the thousands murdered by the Bush Gang in Afghanistan and the tens of thousands murdered in Bush's current blood lust, and it is painfully obvious that the real terrorists we need to worry about are all huddled together in Washington, D.C.

posted by Lorenzo 11:03 AM

04 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke

posted by Lorenzo 4:09 PM

03 December 2003

 

Moving Memorial of US Troops Who Have Fallen in Bush's War on Iraq
Yes. It's a Kucinich ad, but that only comes out in the very last frame. So forget about who paid for it for a moment and just experience this attention-getting Flash presentation.

It is best experienced if your audio is coming in over headphones, but speakers should also show off the sound quite well. I'm not quite sure why this presentation struck me so. I already knew most of the facts. But there is something about the masterful blending of the (admittedly simple) visual and audio components gave me the impression that I was 25 years into the future, walking down a long black memorial wall, and seeing the statistics from the first few years of the war that finally brought this country to its knees. Perhaps it is because I served in Viet Nam that I am so sensitive to the now inescapable parallel of our newest war and the quagmire of Viet Nam.

Something must be done, and soon, to bring this nation to its senses and get rid of these blundering morons in 2004. It may be too late to ever stop this madness if we wait until 2008. I remain absolutely convinced that this country is NOT split down the middle. I am sure that the vast majority of people in this land, if they have the courage to admit it, agree that the men and women who have seized the reins of power in this land have done so in an underhanded manner. And they should be driven from office by an overwhelming percentage of the votes cast. And if their friends who run the voting machine companies rig the election, a general strike should be called until the scallywags leave town. There isn't much time left to make a change in this nation. What are You doing to save our species?

posted by Lorenzo 8:16 PM

 

Something to think about
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their mediocrity in times of crisis.
-- Dante, The Divine Comedy

posted by Lorenzo 3:04 PM

02 December 2003

 

Thought for the day
First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you and you win.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

posted by Lorenzo 12:37 PM

01 December 2003

 

Something to think about
The computer revolution became obvious in the US once we discovered we were wasting more time waiting for our PCs to reboot than we spent each morning waiting for the hot water to reach the bathroom sink.

posted by Lorenzo 7:42 PM

 

Am I the only one who thinks this is a rather unenlightened point of view?
You know, we found one young girl, 18 years old, living on a roof and in danger of being led into an immoral life, so she was locked up.
-- Thomas J. Cahill, former San Francisco chief of police

posted by Lorenzo 7:25 PM

 

Thought for the day
It seems that when men become desperate they consult the gods. And when the gods become desperate, they tell lies!
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama

posted by Lorenzo 11:08 AM